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Establishing pharmaceutical care services in an HIV clinic
1Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy 60612-7230, USA. colombo@uic.edu
Objective:
To present a brief overview of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and to describe the implementation of pharmaceutical care services for adult patients with HIV infection.
Setting:
University hospital clinic.
Practice Description:
A pharmacist joined a multidisciplinary team serving HIV-infected patients in January 1994.
Practice Innovation:
Current pharmacy services include taking medication histories, educating patients, counseling patients on compliance, monitoring response to therapy, identifying drug-related problems, documenting all interventions, and making therapeutic decisions and formulary choices. The pharmacist also participates in research.
Interventions:
The pharmacist sees patients immediately after their physician appointments. Patients with one or more of the following characteristics are targeted to receive pharmaceutical care: multiple drugs, history of noncompliance, initiation of new drug therapy, recently discharged from hospital or emergency department, identification of potential adverse effects, identification of potential drug-drug interactions, and presence of drug toxicities.
Conclusion:
Pharmacists are uniquely qualified to provide a wide range of pharmaceutical care services to HIV-positive patients. Pharmacy interventions should lead to improved outcomes and decreased costs for a chronic and very expensive disease.